In this interview with Corporate Counsel Business Journal, Lilit Asadourian, co-chair of the insurance recovery and counseling practice at Barnes & Thornburg, discusses insurance coverage that in-house counsel should understand and shares best practices for your company’s insurance assets.
At the top of her list is understanding just who owns coverage at your company. “Insurance policies are typically not procured by the corporate legal department,” she says. “They’re probably being procured by either somebody in the CFO’s office or, for larger organizations, in the risk management department.” That makes communication vital to assure policies align with the company’s risk profile. If insurance makes your head hurt, listen to Asadourian. “A company’s insurance program should include three or four very basic policies,” she says. “There should be a commercial general liability policy and a commercial property policy, particularly if you have brick-and-mortar locations or you have inventory, etc. And then a D&O policy. In many instances, companies are also buying E&O policies and, in some instances, employment liability policies too, particularly if there is a big workforce and a supervisory structure.” And what about cyber coverage? “Many companies now are also buying cyber policies separate and apart from D&O and E&O policies,” she says. “Those are the layers of coverage that are available to companies and the ones corporate counsel should have a basic understanding of; these are the wide-ranging types of policies that will respond to different claims.” Read more at CCBJ.